Lunch for the Mommas

I recently had my two sweet friends (Gabe and Mary Rachel) and their boys over for a play date with Collins (as much as our little ones can play) and I wanted to cook lunch for us mommas. I had visions of me whipping up a stress free lunch while our babies napped and then us mommas would talk and eat. Well, what really happened was that Collins woke up with a fever that morning and was so not herself. She was up and down all day. I had a thousand things going on in the kitchen and our conversations were so sporadic and all over the place. Did I mention that I actually had plans to set out china for lunch just to put a cherry on top of my adorable ladies lunch? Let's just say that never happened. It was the thought that counts, right? I came clean with my friends and told them my intentions of fine china and they laughed and said they wouldn't hold it against me. You can't blame me for trying to live with rose colored glasses on!

Here are Gabe and Mary Rachel's sweet boys but no Collins:( She was sleeping.

So I already talked about my sweet friend, Mary Rachel in a previous post who was one of my mommas present and my other momma was life long friend, Gabe. Gabe and I have known each other since high school and have been dear friends since. We have 5 other best friends and we call ourselves the 6-pak. The 7 of us (yes, there is really more than 6 of us) were inseparable in high school and to this day we still have our special friendship. So how blessed was I to move to Houston where a 6-paker already lived!! Gabe and her precious family were there for us from the minute we moved down to the night we moved in, bringing us dinner and helping us put beds together so we would have somewhere to sleep! Having Gabe here is like having family close by. She is honestly my "in case of emergency" person besides my husband on Collin's paperwork. It is a sweet, sweet blessing to have her here.

Here is my dear friend, Gabe, and me getting mani and pedis for my birthday...little did I know she had stolen me away to help my hubby surprise me with a party for my 30th birthday. She is very sneaky!

So when we can, it is fun to get these two great friends involved in my bright ideas hence our little play date lunch. I think next time we should opt for a Mommas Night Out without the precious angels so we can really solve the worlds problems. But we managed to have good girl talk while chasing our little ones, calming their cries or trying to get them to stay in one place. The menu was pretty stinking good (Poppyseed Chicken Casserole over rice, spinach salad, french bread, mint chocolate pudding and almond tea) and we enjoyed ourselves! So in the end my mission was accomplished. Yay!

 Poppyseed Chicken Casserole

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

1 10-oz can cream of chicken soup

1 8-oz container of sour cream

2 tbsp. poppy seeds

1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed

6 tbsp. butter, melted

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

cooked rice

Boil chicken in salted water until tender. Cool and cut up into pieces. Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine chicken, chicken soup, sour cream, poppy seeds, cracker crumbs and butter. Pour into 9 inch baking dish. Top with cheese.  Bake until golden brown and bubbly, approximately 45 minutes. Serve with rice. 

Almond Tea

2 cups boiling water

3 tea bags

1 cup sugar

6 tbp. lemon juice concentrate

1 1/2 tsp almond extract 

1 tsp. vanilla extract

6 cups cold water

Pour boiling water over the tea bags in a large drink container. Steep to the desired strength. Remove the tea bags. Add the sugar, lemon juice concentrate, almond extract and vanilla. Stir until sugar dissolves. Add cold water. Refrigerate until chilled. Serve over ice and with fresh lemon. 

Peppermint Chocolate Pudding

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

2 Tbsp. cornstarch

1/4 tsp. salt

2 cups half and half

4 oz. chopped semi-sweet morsels

1 tbsp. peppermint extract

mini peppermint patties

Whisk  together first 5 ingredients in a 2 quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over moderately high heat, whisking constantly, then boil, whisking 2 minutes until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate and peppermint extract until smooth. Transfer to small bowls and chill pudding, its surface covered with wax paper to prevent a skin (how gross does that sound!!) until cold, at least 2 hours. Top with peppermint patty. 

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Boozed Baked Beans

Boozed Baked Beans....exactly what it sounds like: baked beans with alcohol. And they are amazing!

We recently had a fun summer Saturday cookout with sweet friends who have become dear friends to us. And guess how we met? On a blind date. Seriously. So when we told some of our best friends in Nashville (Jenn and Jett) that we were moving, my dear Jenn said (through her sad little tears) that I would have to meet her sorority sister, Mary Rachel, who just moved to Houston too....at least she and I could be together.

Me and sweet Jenn just a few days ago in Nashville! Still the best of friends!

See, Jenn and I were simpatico from the moment we met so it broke my heart to tell her that we were moving. But now to have a new friend here in Houston that was all orchestrated by Jenn makes me feel like she is present when Mary Rachel and I are together. And Jenn was right, I loved Mary Rachel from the moment I met her. We have way too much in common from both loving our Jenn, to being new to Houston, to teaching Kindergarten to both living in Louisiana at some point to marrying LSU fanatics and now being new mommies together. May Rachel and David had their precious little Matthew last August only 4 months before Collins was born. And Mary Rachel and I both love anything and everything monogrammed. She is like the kind of friend that we pin all the same stuff on Pinterest. That is serious friendship! :)  So now Mary Rachel and David are sweet, dear friends of ours just like Jenn and Jett still are to us. Thank you, my lovely Jenn for introducing us! Oh and our blind date? Mary Rachel and me plus our hubbies all met for pizza right when we moved to Houston last December and have been doing life together since. We love their friendship!

So before babies, the four of us met for yummy dinners out. Well, now? Not so much. However we did recently all go to an Jason Aldean concert and totally rocked it like weren't tired parents with babies at home:) But now, we get together for dinner with babies on board. We love a good cook out and taking the babies for a dip in the pool.  This particular night started with the pool with the mommies and babies swimming together and the men drinking their beer, of course. 

Once the babies got tired of that, we let them play in jello, in diapers on the patio. It was a green but fun mess but oh so cute!

This then led to an outside dinner for both babies because they were covered in sticky jello and bug spray. And that led to a their first little bath together. We took pictures and videos the entire time and promised to embarrass them with the pictures one day when they are older. After bath came bed with both babies going down with ease and Matthew wearing Collins pajamas!  After wine was poured and we could finally relax, we ate.....at 9pm. But that's the new, good life so we roll with the punches! 

So dinner consisted of burgers, chips and dip and Boozed Baked Beans. The men LOVED this dish...probably because of the alcohol but either way, it was GOOD.

Boozed Baked Beans

6 slices bacon

1 large onion, chopped

1 medium green pepper, chopped

2 16-ounce cans pork and beans

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. dry mustard

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup whiskey

Preheat oven to 350. Cook bacon in skillet until done. Remove bacon and chop into small pieces. Set aside. Keep 2 tablespoons of drippings and drain the rest. Add onion and pepper to drippings and saute until soft. Combine all ingredients, except bacon, in 9 x 9 inch dish. Top with bacon. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Enjoy!

This cooking is for you, Momou! I love you!

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The Sunshine Crew and Party Foods!

So I can't help it...someone starts wanting to plan an event and the Martha Stewart wannabe inside of me takes over. I love planning and I love events. My husband may say it is because I can be bossy and like to execute things and delegate tasks but I don't know. In my dream world, I would be the "hostess with the mostess" for a living. But I am not...I teach precious little angels. So what about mixing the two? Well, when I found out that the heads of our Sunshine Crew (the party/event/appreciation planners for our school) were stepping down, of course the wheels started to turn in this brain of mine. I found out it it is a rather large job and one that wasn't exactly umm...coveted but it still didn't stop me apparently.

I prayed about it (this new momma has to pray about EVERYTHING because otherwise I would sign up for it all and it would be a big fat disaster because of my overcommitments. Let's just say I like to say "yes" to lots. But ohhhhhh how this new season that I am in has stopped me dead in my tracks from doing this anymore. Plus I have a few trusted loved ones in my life who know me so well that when I get these bright ideas, they say "Lisa??? Are you sure about this??" and then I really come back down from my cloud in the sky and think about things again.

But after praying about it, I felt peace and a continued sparked interest so I emailed my principal and told her I was interested. She suggested I rally some help and within a few hours, I had 3 new Sunshine Crew co-chairs. And let me tell you, these are the cutest girls ever with amazing ideas and spunk. So I now have the best of all worlds...I am not alone in this new ambition that I wanted to take on and I have some fabulous ladies to work with. And they seriously rock. God couldn't have worked it out better. So meet my new Sunshine Crew Co-chairs. Lauren (left), Ashley (middle) and Megan (right)
So we had our first meeting of the minds on a night the hubby was out of town and these sweet girls came to me since I had the darling Baboosky to take care of. (Did I mention these beautiful girls also adore my child and babysit for her? How lucky am I?) I put these sweet girls to work in kitchen...okay, so maybe I am a bit bossy;) but they were very willing and before you knew it, we had sweet CC in bed, finger foods made and wine out. Megan asked if we were going to actually talk "sunshine crew" stuff and I broke out the legal pad saying "of course!". Of course we talked about other things and solved many of the world's problems but we did manage to get some great ideas down for the year ahead. It's gonna be a good one! And if all our meetings are as fun as this, then we may have to meet very often:)

Here is a recipe or two from the night...we loved them all. And oh my gosh, these recipes were so stinking easy!

Goat Cheese-Pecan Finger Sandwiches

4 oz. Goat Cheese

3 oz. softened cream cheese

1/2 cup finely chopped toasted pecans

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

14 bread slices

1/3 cup red pepper jelly

Stir together the first four ingredients. Spread mixture on 7 bread slices. Spread pepper jelly on other 7 bread slices and top with cheese covered bread slices. Remove crusts and cut each sandwich into 4 triangles. Delish!

Cajun Pecan Brittle And oh this stuff is addicting! Passed on to me by my Aunt Lee, Momou's daughter.

1 box Club crackers

2 cups chopped pecans

2 sticks butter

2/3 cups sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheet with foil and place crackers to cover foil.Place crackers close together closing any gaps. You will need more than one cookie sheet. Spread pecans evenly over pecans.In a saucepan, melt butter. Add sugar and bring to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes and remove from heat. Pour mixture evenly over pecans and crackers. Bake for 15 minutes. Let cool and break into pieces. So good!

This is for you, Momou! I love you!

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Supporting Paula Deen

I am not one at all to ruffle feathers when it comes to debatable issues. I cringe when people around me start talking politics or anything that might get others in arguements. The thing is, we are all entitled to our own opinion. And it is just that, an opinion. And I usually have one, but I don't find myself voicing it over these type of matters unless it is in the safety of very close friends or family. I do not even want to get into religion and the difference between catholics, baptists etc. (and I love to talk faith because I am one believing girl!) but I WILL happily tell you about our awesome God. Because He is for everyone: methodist, lutheran, democrat, republican and everyone else out there...He love us ALL. I will stand up for the things that matter and  make a difference in my life or the lives of my loved ones.

But this issue leaves my stomach in knots and I just have to share my opinion this time. I have loved Paula Deen and all that she has stood for. If you have ever read her biography, you will find that she built her career from NOTHING and I admire her so much for it. She presents cooking with lots of fun and makes anyone feel that they too can whip up great dishes. She reminds us that anything good is somehow centered around food and she definitely celebrates that and encourages us all to do the same. Food brings family, celebrations, laughter, memories and life is too short to go without embracing all that food has to offer...even the extra few pounds:)

The thing is, we are all guilty of making mistakes and saying things we regret. We are all guilty of something or another. She is not perfect and never did I think she was. I knew all along that she puts her shoes on the same way I do, every single day. Do I agree with the word she used? No, not at all. I don't use it myself and cringe when I hear that word used.  But I promise I have been guilty of using some word at some point that didn't paint someone else in the best light. I have hurt feelings and undoubtedly offended others. And I was sorry for it and it still makes my heart hurt, but I hope I have been forgiven. And I can only offer the same forgiveness to others who have hurt me. Paula didn't lie in her deposition and her honesty caused great ruin. Why is it that she is the one to take the fall for a sin we have all committed at some point or another? What if we all lost our jobs because we have said something before that was hurtful? We would all be without a job! Again, I do not agree with the words she used and she made a mistake. BUT she has paid for it in more ways than one and all the stone throwers out there still have their job. We are all guilty of the same exact thing...we just never have been caught. So Paula Deen, you have my support. From one imperfect person to another.

The pictures above were taken at a book signing that I stood in line for hours for. We were told that were not allowed to take pictures with her because she had too many books to sign. Well, you know what...she still took pictures with anyone who asked...white, black, cuban, spanish and whomever else. We were ALL there! And she was incredibly sweet about it. But I was early in the line and didn't realize she was so kind and willing to take pictures so I never asked. All to see her take pictures with many more that followed me in line. The aspiring cook in me was so crushed that I missed my chance. So my sweet husband, told me to go buy another book, get back in line and he would be ready with the camera. I did just that all to wait again and have them end the signing right before I was up again to get my book signed. And do you know what? She saw me and my obvious disappointment all over my face and got me out of the crowd of people to go and stand with her and her husband and take a picture with her. Just me...the one who waited through line twice. She could have left, not giving two cares about me. It was late and I pretty much had closed down Costco with her. But her sweet character shined through. You know, everyone makes mistakes but you can tell who a person is by their character. And this southern lady, made a mistake but she does have great character. I saw it firsthand.

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Special Father's Day Dinner...Take 2!

So we had a wonderful Father's Day weekend celebrating our dads. But there was one dad who was kind of left out and that was my hubby, the new dad. Not that we meant to leave him out but with all we had going on this weekend in Louisiana and celebrating and visiting our own dads, we decided to do our own little Father's Day celebration once we got back to Houston. Something special like a nice dinner....just for him.

I imagined myself with a fabulous apron on, wine poured, music playing and just channeling my inner Julia Child. Well, things don't always go exactly as planned when you have a baby. My fancy dreams of all THREE of us sitting down to a fancy dinner while Collins smacked happily on the food I had freshly prepared for her went out the window. Instead, dinner was not even ready by the time Collins was ready to eat. I was not wearing a fabulous apron and there wasn't any music playing except for our little angel crying! Our focus turned to her trying hard to get her to like the food but in ended in tears and her spitting it ALL out. Not to mention, our dog barking like crazy at something outside was enough for us to go mad. It was a chaotic mess and there was nothing fancy about it. Our dinner was turned off...to be continued until Collins was fed, bathed and asleep. We finally made it through, wiping sweet potatoes of everything and Collins went down to bed. Not exactly as planned.

Okay, special Father's Day dinner(minus the baby at this point)...take 2. So it ended up that our dinner turned out a little differently and in its own perfect way. After our little cherub went to sleep, we poured ourselves a glass of wine and got to work in the kitchen. Yes, Jason helped prepare his own Father's Day dinner but you don't turn down help at 8:30 pm to prepare dinner. So we ended up cooking together just like the old days. Music on, wine poured, talking about this and that all while cooking. We haven't done that together in um...maybe a year. But with a new job and new baby, cooking together is a luxury so we were long overdue. And God knew it too. I can't help but thing our special dinner played out the way He meant it to be. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly feeling like we had the best quality time in a longgggggg time.

What did I....I mean, we, prepare? BBQ Shrimp over Smoked Gruyere Grits with cornbread(the man LOVES cornbread while I am a french bread kind of girl) and salad. For dessert? S'mores Bars. And he was happy as a little clam. Score one for the wife:) See below for these recipes. Oh, and ALL incredibly easy. Thank God, since we didn't even start cooking until 8:30!!

Barbecue Shrimp

1 lemon, cut into wedges

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 bay leaf

1.5 Tbsp. Old Bay Seasoning

1/2 tsp. dried rosemary leaves

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

2 lb. unpeeled, large raw shrimp (Okay, so my hubby used to work for a wonderful and favorite restaurant in Natchitoches, La called Mama's. They served BBQ shrimp and it was loved by all! At the restaurant, the shrimp was unpeeled as well so this is the way we have always seen it served. But, if you don't want to get your hands messy during dinner, just go ahead and buy peeled shrimp. It won't hurt a thing!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place shrimp in a 13x9 inch pan spreading them out. Stir together all other ingredients and then pour over the shrimp. Bake for 35 minutes, stirring every once and a while. Serve with fresh lemon wedges and over grits. This will serve 4 people easily. You can even prepare ahead of time! Woo hoo!



Smoked Gruyere Grits

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup milk (Fat free worked perfectly but any other percent would as well)

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 cup uncooked instant grits

4 oz. smoked Gruyere grits shredded(feel free to use any smoked cheese but you want the smoked flavor!)

1.5 Tbsp. butter

Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil in medium saucepan over medium high heat. Gradually whisk in grits. Cover, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer, whisking occasionally for 5 minutes or until thickened. Stir in cheese and butter until it is all nice and melted.

S'mores Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 (1.5 oz) milk chocolate bars

1 small jar marshmallow creme

Preheat oven to 350. Spray an 8 inch baking pan with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until combined. In a small bowl, combine flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture, and beat until combined. Press half of dough in bottom of prepared pan. Place chocolate bars on top of dough. I used 2 XL chocolate bars and they seriously fit like a glove! Spread marshmallow creme on top of the chocolate.

Finally, spread the remaining graham cracker dough on top of the creme. Bake for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Special Father's Day dinner? Accomplished and done but not how I intentionally pictured it in my head. But I liked the Plan B:) This is in honor of you, Mamou! I love you!

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